Displacement sensors are used in different applications to measure the relative position of components. For example, displacement sensors can be used in the aircraft industry to measure displacement of the brake pedal. The measured displacement can then be converted into a braking command to be conveyed to a brake assembly.
There are many different types of displacement sensors. Potentiometers are one type of displacement sensors that can be coupled to a user input, such as a brake pedal, and utilized to detect the extent/amount/magnitude of user input. Potentiometers are multiple terminal resistors that can be used to measure electric voltage. A potentiometer can be calibrated so that a measured electric voltage can be correlated with a relative position of a movable electric contact of the potentiometer. However, due to conditions that are often present while operating an aircraft, potentiometers and other displacement sensors may fail due to excessive wear caused by vibrations propagating through contacting surfaces of the displacement sensors.